Front Porch Farm raising Italian Cinta pigs

HEIRLOOM ITALIAN BREED

Published 3:57 pm, Friday, December 7, 2012

Front Porch Farm manager Matt Taylor and one of the heirloom white-belted pigs imported from Tuscany.

Front Porch Farm manager Matt Taylor and one of the heirloom white-belted pigs imported from Tuscany.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 2 of 5

These Cinta Senese pigs, now known as Cinta Sonomas, forage and root for nuts falling from trees.

These Cinta Senese pigs, now known as Cinta Sonomas, forage and root for nuts falling from trees.

Photo: Lance Iversen, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 5

A male Cinta Senese pig walks through a field of clover at Front Porch Farm in Healdsburg California Tuesday August 14, 2012. The heirloom breed was imported from Tuscany Italy, and is known for their gentle manner and soft mouths. less

A male Cinta Senese pig walks through a field of clover at Front Porch Farm in Healdsburg California Tuesday August 14, 2012. The heirloom breed was imported from Tuscany Italy, and is known for their gentle ... more

It stands out: In a series of murals called "The Allegory of Good and Bad Government," painted in 1338 in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy, all eyes turn to a pig. Not just any pig. A pig that's all black except for a thick white band stretching across its belly.

It's the Cinta Senese, the "belted pig of Siena," an endangered breed revered by Italians for producing meat with a unique flavor. These pigs have never left their centuries-long home in Tuscany - until now.

After two-plus years of trans-Atlantic efforts, 21 pigs arrived in June at Front Porch Farm in Healdsburg - and that has Bay Area chefs and restaurateurs salivating.

Matt Taylor, who runs Front Porch, said he first heard about the pigs from an Italian family who came to visit Front Porch owners Peter and Mimi Buckley. The three immediately decided to try to bring the rare breed to the United States.

"We were thinking we would just say, 'Hey, can we get some pigs?' " said Taylor, who runs Front Porch, with a laugh. "It didn't work out like that."

It took months of visiting with various Italian families before one agreed to export some pigs - but only on the condition that Taylor and the Buckleys would work to maintain and improve the nearly extinct genetic line.

The pigs will be known as Cinta Sonomas, a hybrid name uniting their two worlds. And their Front Porch Farm environment resembles the Tuscan countryside portrayed in that Palazzo Pubblico mural.

"The idea is to have natural habitat which is similar to Tuscany, with the rolling oak woodlands, and also to have the chestnuts to finish them on," Taylor said.

Chestnut trees were planted at Front Porch in anticipation of the pigs' diet of acorns and chestnuts, all organic and biodynamic. The Cintas will be raised like feral pigs, foraging and rooting for nuts that fall from the trees.

And they'll be foraging for a while. Most pigs get to market weight in six to eight months; Cintas need 18 months to two years.

"The biggest thing is the extrapolation of the season," Taylor said. "Because of (the long growing period ) and the movement and diet of all the seasons, there's just so much more flavor involved in the pig and a consistency of flavor."

That's just what local salumi producers, restaurant owners and chefs are anticipating.

"I don't see (Cintas) that often," said Bob Klein of Oliveto in Oakland, who goes to Italy every year. "When you do see them, you want it. The meat is extraordinary."

Klein compared the taste and quality to an Iberian breed, Ossabaw, that he uses to make prosciutto. He said Oliveto chefs would use the Cinta Sonomas for various kinds of salumi, as well as prosciutto.

The pigs are in the process of being bred, and Taylor expects a litter of about 120 piglets to be born next year, primarily in the spring.

That number is too many to keep at Front Porch, so 2,000 additional acres have been purchased in Yorkville, on Highway 128 in Mendocino County, for the pigs to breed and grow.

The first Cintas should reach market in 2014.

"I think that this is a really important pig. And it will be great meat for more and more talented cured meat makers to work with," Klein said. "We stand ready."

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